1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wireless telecommunication with location based services (LBS) applications, with particular relevance to the provision of local points of interest, location based advertising, location based blogs, location based commerce, etc.
2. Background of Related Art
Marketers are always trying to reach customers in new and innovative ways. To this end, certain technologies are emerging to allow targeted marketing and advertising to consumers based on their location.
For instance, a conventional Bluetooth MediaServer (available from www.wiremedia.com) distributes advertising content via Bluetooth communication to proximate wireless devices that use compatible Bluetooth wireless technology. But such systems require the relevant wireless device to get very close, i.e., within range of the given Bluetooth MediaServer transmitter. And even then, a willing customer must have a compatible Bluetooth enabled wireless devices to receive the marketing or advertising.
Other methods require a user to directly input their location into a web page via a computer browser application, e.g., Internet based advertising systems (e.g., a Google search). The search engine web page (e.g., Google) provides results of the search, together with location-specific sponsored advertising based on a zip code entered by a user. This method requires the user to have a browser-capable device, to manually enter their own location in very broad terms (e.g., zip code), and depends upon the user to not make an input mistake.
There is a need for a method and apparatus for sending marketing, advertising, blogs, etc. information directed to relevant users based on their location, without unduly burdening a relevant wireless network.